


No Tragedy Is In Vain

by Saltpowered



Category: Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Character Death, Eventual Fluff, I'm Bad At Tagging, M/M, Not Really Character Death, Slow Burn, Tired Peter Parker, To Be Continued, Wade Wilson Needs A Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-02
Packaged: 2020-01-01 02:16:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18326651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltpowered/pseuds/Saltpowered
Summary: Not all love stories end in tragedy. Some are born in it.





	No Tragedy Is In Vain

**Author's Note:**

> Posted from mobile, so please forgive me if there are some mistakes. They will be fixed as soon as possible.

Crime doesn't pay. Sure, yeah, if you get caught then you can say bye-bye to all your fancy sports cars and golden toilet seats, but people don't generally join the criminal ranks out of boredom. It can,however, pay pretty damn well if you're good at slipping under the radar. It's stopping the crime that doesn't pay. If you're wearing a mask, at least. Big shots like Stark flaunt their name every chance they get and receive endless adoration and pretty wads of cash basically thrown at them. The increasingly few heroes that choose to keep their identities secret don't get those privileges, at most a last-page article in a newspaper nobody reads. 

"You gonna get something, or just stand there?" a disgruntled voice snapped Peter from his increasingly self pitying thoughts and back to the displeased man behind the counter, realizing the line had moved without him noticing. 

"Right, yeah, I'll just have a croissant and a latte, please." 

"Five bucks." Charming customer service, really. 

Peter pulled out his wallet and fished out barely enough coins, cursing the human need for sustenance. At the very least, it'll keep him going for the rest of his lectures, after which he can have an almost decent meal at home before patrol. Honestly, the news make superhero life sound so much more glamorous than it really is. 

He waited for a few minutes in the small cafe that seemed to be re-purposed from a bar, just people-watching. It was always nice to take a moment and look around, just sort of remind himself that he wasn't the only one struggling. A couple high-school kids were stressing about exams in the corner over their coffees, a man sitting by the counter was glaring at his laptop as if willing the Word document to write itself, there was also a mother trying to explain to her young child that coffee's an adult drink and he wouldn't like it, while trying to dial someone. Sure, most of these people didn't risk their lives fighting armed robbers in their downtime, but it was still good to see he wasn't the only one dealing with stress in his life.

After collecting his order, Peter exited the small cafe and decided to walk to college today. The usual clouds had finally given way to a little bit of sun and some fresh air wouldn't do him harm. 

Just as he took the first bite, the all-too familiar sound of sirens started up a few blocks off. It was oh so tempting to just let someone else deal with whatever issue it is for once, his ribs still bruised from last night, but Peter couldn't risk anyone getting injured for the sake of him having a break. With one last sip, he ducked into the nearest alley and stripped out of his clothes to expose the suit hidden underneath and pulled the mask out of his bag and onto his head. Nothing like changing in a urine-stained alley on a Wednesday morning. Truly refreshing.

After stuffing the clothes in his bag and sticking it under a dumpster, Peter took off, webbing his way upwards before heading to the source of the sirens, hoping that whatever dragged him away from the day-old croissant wasn't just a false alarm. 

Swinging his way closer to the sirens, it became very obvious that it was definitely worth the trip. Thick plumes of smoke could be seen from blocks away, paired with people heading the opposite direction in disorderly swarms. Once he arrived at the scene, yeah, it was absolutely worth missing a few dollars. An entire apartment building was going up in flames, surrounded by multiple fire trucks and a crowd of screaming people. 

Landing next to one of the trucks, he wasted no time running up to the nearest fireman, inquiring about the situation.

"Most of the people are out, but, fuck, Wade's still in there, went to grab the last person. If there's anything you can do..."

"Got it, thanks!" Peter mock saluted and with a well-placed web flung himself into the top floor window the man had pointed him to. The smoke was suffocating, the flames desperately trying to get him, but thankfully Peter had worn his newest suit, hoping for a test run. And what a test run it was. The filter he had installed in the mask seemed to be keeping the smoke out of his lungs, and thankfully the flames weren't too wild in the upper floor yet. Still, the building's structure was definitely compromised and he prayed he could get the people out in time.

"Wade? Uh, other person? I'm here to help!" 

Even through the roaring all around him, he could pick out someone shouting a few doors and Peter rushed towards the sound, bursting into one of the apartments. Taking a second to concentrate on the sound, he could tell the shouting was coming from one of the bedrooms. Turning into it, he could see a young woman huddled up in a corner, face covered in ash and eyes shining with tears. The poor woman was shaking and coughing, he needed to get her out of here fast. 

As soon as Peter came through the door, she started bawling and tried to stand up move towards him, but fell back down, a large gash in her leg now evident. Before she could hurt herself more, Peter rushed over and picked her up as carefully as he could.

"I've got you, I've got you, we'll be out and safe soon."

He couldn't really tell what she said through the sobbing, but it didn't really matter in the moment, as he had much more important things to figure out. For instance, how the hell was he supposed to get out? The hallway was smoking up quickly and even he only had the one filter in his mask. He had to think quick, there was still another man here he had to get out. 

With very little time on his hands, Peter did the first thing that came to his mind, there wasn't time for worrying about his identity. He asked the woman where the nearest window was, having to repeat it a couple times before she pointed to a room across the hallway, and pulled his mask off, handing it to her. 

"Put it on, alright? I'll get you out." 

After a few long seconds of her shakily putting it on, they were good to go and with a deep inhale, Peter ran to where the woman had motioned the window was,tryng his damnest not to inhale the smoke, though it was getting his eyes and damn, was that unpleasant. Thankfully, after turning the corner, he saw an open window in the living room area. The smoke was thick, but the fire was still relatively minor, so that was one less thing to worry about. 

Running over to his only exit, he set the woman down carefully and looked out. The crowd was being held back, firemen doing what they could to keep everyone at a safe distance as they dealt with the fire the best they could. They were a few stories up, but not so much he couldn't get the woman out safe. 

"Alright, I need you to listen carefully," Peter turned back to the woman, who was sitting on the ground next to him, hugging her knees and sobbing, "I'm gonna take my mask, because there's another man in here I need to get to, okay? I'm gonna take the mask and put a web around your waist and lower you out the window. It's not going to be fun, but I'll get you down safe, I promise."

She gave the lightest nod and Peter removed his mask from her, putting it back on himself, "By the way, if you could, like, not tell anyone you saw my face, that would be amazing." Another small nod and he got to work, wrapping a web around her waist a few times and giving it a tug to check if it was secure. Afterwards, he picked her up once more and brought her to the window.

"Alright, you might want to close your eyes for this." Slowly, he leaned her over the windowsill, letting go of her and slowly lowering her with the web attached to her. Soon enough, she was safely on the ground and Peter let go of the web, turning back into the apartment. Time to find Wade. 

One problem, though, he couldn't hear a single other person. An uneasy feeling grew in his gut, but Peter chose to ignore it for now, rather trying to figure out how to find a single person in a six story apartment building set ablaze. Coming up with no grand ideas, he had to settle for running through the hallways, calling the man's name, hoping he'd respond.

It took far longer than Peter would have liked, but after checking about six apartments that e could still enter, he finally saw the man by a stairway. Just as he had gotten his hopes up, nearing the man, his body sank. While still obviously a fireman, judging from the torn up outfit he was wearing, the man had gotten stuck under a pile of rubble and he wasn't moving. The man's entire body was badly burned and after a closer look, he wasn't breathing. 

He had seen dead people in his line of work, and as much as they had wrecked him, none were quite as gruesome as this, not an inch of skin untouched. It looked like he had gotten unlucky and the fire caught up with him, before the rubble fell on the poor man, extinguishing more than just the flames.

It made Peter sick, knowing he hadn't made in time, but he had to pull through and at least get the body out. Pushing back the nausea and ignoring the tears stinging his eyes, he cleared the rubble with shaking hands, before picking the body up. On unstable legs he took, Peter assumed Wade, to the nearest window. Clutching the man tight he navigated them over the edge and lowered them down to the firemen that had gathered below when they saw him. 

Too shake up to even speak, Peter gently handed Wade to the nearest fireman. Too out of it from what had just happened, he couldn't even understand what the men were shouting as he walked away. The world seemed muffled, not only the noises, but the sight of it as well, as Peter shot out a web and as if on auto-pilot swung his way up and away to a secluded alley. 

Without really thinking, he landed in a darker corner, behind a dumpster and slumped to the ground. The image of the man refused to leave his mind and though he tried to tell himself he couldn't have done more, it still felt like Peter had somehow personally caused his death. Struggling to catch his breath, Peter ripped his mask and just broke down, at a complete loss as to what else could be done.

**Author's Note:**

> Any reviews are very, very welcome. Thank you for reading!


End file.
